Saltillo Elementary School

Saltillo Elementary School serves 696 students in grades 3–5 in Saltillo, Mississippi, part of the Lee County school district. The campus works alongside Saltillo Primary School, about 1.6 miles away, to deliver the full PK–5 elementary experience for the community. With a student-teacher ratio of 13.9, class sizes are slightly smaller than at several neighboring campuses, and 55.6% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch — a lower share than most Tupelo-area schools.

The school currently holds a 3-star rating and ranks 154th out of 377 Mississippi elementary schools, a solid rebound from a 2-star year in 2023–24. Saltillo students outperform the state in 3rd-grade reading and math, 5th-grade reading, and 5th-grade science — the latter jumping from 52.6% proficiency in 2022–23 to 78.2% by 2025–26, a clear success story. The most persistent concern is 4th-grade math, where proficiency sits at 39.2%, more than 12 points below the state average. This has been a multi-year trend, pointing to a structural challenge in math instruction between 3rd and 4th grade rather than a single difficult cohort.

When compared with nearby schools, Saltillo holds its own on reading but is inconsistent in math and science. Lawhon Elementary outperforms it in 4th-grade math and 5th-grade math, and Rankin Elementary beats it in 5th-grade science — despite serving higher-poverty populations. The most instructive comparison, however, is Mooreville Elementary, a same-district school with almost identical demographics and enrollment. Mooreville ranks 83rd in Mississippi (4 stars) versus Saltillo's 154th, and beats Saltillo in every tested subject. Chronic absenteeism at Saltillo (19.8%) is better than the Lee County district average (26.2%) and most nearby schools, though rates have crept upward since 2019. Saltillo is a solid mid-tier school with real strengths and clear targets for improvement.